Thai airlines weigh in on passenger pounds

[10baht]

3 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Very intrusive. I think I would start saying NO to the airlines who engage in this policy. See ya! 

If they are going to do this they need to give us light weights free extra baggage as now with AI they have the data to figure out a 250 lb gal is bring 100lbs more on board that I am. ⚖️ Only fare if its weight vs fuel consumption. Or discount  my ticket 

[tkramer]

2 hours ago, Iron Tongue said:

It has nothing to do with weight distribution.  It's another opportunity to charge more per seat.

As it should be!

[tkramer]

2 hours ago, IamNoone88 said:

Its complete rubbish. Commercial flights started in 1914 over 100 years ago ... airline safety standards and engineering standards are second to none .... and there is no data available on average weight distribution for individuals ... anywhere .. including national health services? Airlines are looking to gouge passengers yet again ... Ryanair even call it a "fat tax".

"fat tax". That's telling it like it is.

 

I love it...!

[thaibeachlovers]

If it means that I don't have to sit next to a land whale next time I fly I'm all for it.

[phetphet]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

This passenger weigh-in data would then be used to update and enhance service efficiency,

How does weighing passengers and their luggage enhance service efficiency? Sounds like gobbledegook for 'make more money'.  e.g. Anyone over 65kgs must pay X-amount per kg.

 

Or does it mean, seat all the fatties at the back, and load the back end trollies with more food than the front ones?

 

It's not like the airlines didn't bring a lot of this on themselves. They discouraged passengers from checked in luggage to save money. Now said passenger are taking everything but the kitchen sink onboard with them.

[tkramer]

59 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Disagree. Eventually overly large people should be expected to pay more. It’s not my fault they overeat and use more fuel. I check in with a bag one kilo over and get charged handsomely for the pleasure, while a fatty twice my size with a bag slightly underweight does not get penalised. Time to call them out and also pay for an extra seat if they encroach on their neighbour. 

Thank you...!

[jacko45k]

Make the fatties pay more and their in flight meal choice should be salad or salad, Bodybuilders get a banana!

[10baht]

1 hour ago, waders123 said:

An additional fee will be applied to passengers who exceed the limit.

This is why airlines have been a bad investment. They always use a stick instead of a carrot. They need to set the weight limit and discount light weights as well as have an added fee depending on the total weight.

[dcalaska]

The average weight of a passenger with luggage is 84 KGs. Ticket prices should be set on this average weight. Paid at booking.

Step 2: At check-in, weight the luggage AND the passenger. If the weight is under 84 KGs, a refund is due to the fuel saving lighter passenger and luggage.

If the total weight is over 84 KGs, the fuel consuming heavy passenger must pay a fuel surcharge.

Simple as that. Fairness is good for everyone. Everybody wins. How can you argue that.

[Andycoops]

3 hours ago, Iron Tongue said:

It has nothing to do with weight distribution.  It's another opportunity to charge more per seat.

Weight distribution is everything in flying because if the centre of gravity isn't correct it will lead to a catastrophe.

[jacko45k]

10 minutes ago, Andycoops said:

Weight distribution is everything in flying because if the centre of gravity isn't correct it will lead to a catastrophe.

Nonsense..... 

[digbeth]

31 minutes ago, phetphet said:

How does weighing passengers and their luggage enhance service efficiency? Sounds like gobbledegook for 'make more money'.  e.g. Anyone over 65kgs must pay X-amount per kg.

 

Or does it mean, seat all the fatties at the back, and load the back end trollies with more food than the front ones?

 

It's not like the airlines didn't bring a lot of this on themselves. They discouraged passengers from checked in luggage to save money. Now said passenger are taking everything but the kitchen sink onboard with them.

if they can truly distribute the weight evenly, the aircraft won't be out of trim by too much and use less fuel, even if that's the case will they pass on the cost savings to passengers? doubt it. so instead of randomly assigned seats, passengers could be distributed according to weight, if you don't like that - pay more but that would require weighing before check in, 

[Sir Swagman]

As a traveller in aluminium tubing from a previous life I can tell you most of what is posted is BS. Thai regs are not much different from international ones (standards are another matter!) and if you weigh some passengers you have to weigh them all. Mixing average weights and actual is not permitted. Cargo loading is, unless the ULDs (the containers holding underfloor baggage on most larger transport aircraft are individually weighed - something I have not seen), not loaded by members of Mensa. Bags are just chucked into the nearest available box (if labelled fragile it will be thrown gently however). I guarantee that Load Control for any airline, seating more than about 30 passengers, does not have the capability to distribute passenger weights, either by zone or row, if individual weights are applied. It would take so long to enter individual weights to the system that check in times would need to be extended by perhaps an hour. They will use average weights to trim the aircraft. Standard passenger weights used to be 77Kg + carry on (average or limit) + actual checked baggage to achieve a load and thereby calculate takeoff weight, from which other performance parameters flow. There was (for a while at least) a standard passenger weight that applied to Asia (I think around 66Kg, from memory) but thanks to Macdonalds and the like, that is hardly applicable now. Leaving the US and some European ports the aircraft always slightly under-performed as the standard weights were exceeded by the vast majority of passengers. 

The ONLY reason this is being promulgated is to make money by saving fuel and engine wear and tear (reduced thrust takeoff) - safety is the very last thing on the mind of the accounts running airlines these days.

[hidbehindthesofa]

2 hours ago, PeachCH said:

Too many fat, overweight people around. Good measure from the airlines. 👍

Yes - but are those who are obese going to volunteer to be weighed ?  (Or are those with a 15kg carry on bag going to place it on the scales voluntarily ?).

[sammieuk1]

Who will be the first to have a turn out in the queue to lose some weight ..log off over and out 🤔  

[Marco51]

4 hours ago, Bobydog said:

This practice was alive and well years ago in the Philippines, don't know about now, it's been a while.

.....never come back airlines ................

[Drumbuie]

4 hours ago, blazes said:

In Asia, there is generally no problem with obesity (so, yes, this may just be an opportunity to gouge further).

 

In the US of A on the other hand....

There is a growing ( ha!) problem of obesity in Asia. Even ten years ago it was rare to see an Asian who was more than plump. Now there are a noticeable number who are definitely clinically obese. 

And all airlines are doing this because there are so many people who weigh much more than the average ( 70kg). Having sat next to people who were so fat they took up half my seat as well as their own on both legs of the last long haul flight I took, it can't happen too soon. They should have to pay extra for wider seats. 

[Bangkok Barry]

4 hours ago, DjSilver said:

Another reason why passengers are giving up on Thai air. Always bankruptcy when the board of directors are all Thai 🤣

Utter nonsense. They haven't brought in any new rules yet, and you just made up that it is a reason passengers are giving up on THAI. The second paragraph, which you clearly don't understand (maybe English isn't your first language) refers to foreign airlines. Air Asia and Thai Lion are simply asking for passengers to volunteer to be weighed. There is no mention at all of THAI being involved. How did you tie this article to THAI and bankruptcy?

[Bangkok Barry]

12 hours ago, Peabody said:

So if you prepay for a specific seat, you may get moved?

 

A very good point. Perhaps they'll give 'victims' a second pack of peanuts as compensation. Or, if it's a Thai airline, a small bottle of chicken essence.

[alien365]

I don't even think the lightweights would like this idea either if it increases their chances of being assigned seats next to the fatties. 

[Bangkok Barry]

There are so many comments in this thread about it being just another money-making exercise. Yet nowhere in the article here, or in the link, is there any mention at all of passengers being charged more if they are heavier. Not. One. Word. It is about weight distribution. The movement is an effort to save fuel. I'm not an expert but to me, and others who have commented, that appears to be rubbish.

 

This passenger weigh-in measure, initiated today, allows airlines to distribute weight more effectively on international flights, thus reducing fuel usage.

[ikke1959]

everything to boost tourism... and later wondering why there are less .....

[ikke1959]

2 hours ago, dcalaska said:

The average weight of a passenger with luggage is 84 KGs. Ticket prices should be set on this average weight. Paid at booking.

Step 2: At check-in, weight the luggage AND the passenger. If the weight is under 84 KGs, a refund is due to the fuel saving lighter passenger and luggage.

If the total weight is over 84 KGs, the fuel consuming heavy passenger must pay a fuel surcharge.

Simple as that. Fairness is good for everyone. Everybody wins. How can you argue that.

stupid post.... A western tourist weight 85 kg which is very normal and with 20kg luggage they all have to pay much more, than an Asian who weight 53 and 20kg luggage will get a discount?? Bit strange...but when the Asian brings 20k luggage and 10k as handluggage which I often see in airplanes it would be no problem.. So only westerns are being overweighed constantly

[FarangFB]

2 hours ago, Andycoops said:

Weight distribution is everything in flying because if the centre of gravity isn't correct it will lead to a catastrophe.

So how is it possible that in like 100 years of commercial flights passengers haven't being weighted and I haven't heard of a single airplane crash in which the cause was a bad weight distribution?

[digbeth]

1 hour ago, Sir Swagman said:

...Standard passenger weights used to be 77Kg ...

So how would they know if this has increased in decades since then without weighing passengers? 

[digbeth]

8 minutes ago, FarangFB said:

So how is it possible that in like 100 years of commercial flights passengers haven't being weighted and I haven't heard of a single airplane crash in which the cause was a bad weight distribution?

there's been a few crash due to bad weigh distribution, biggest one recently was 747 that took off from Kabul and crash due to bad weight distribution in 2013

[newbee2022]

Time now to lose weight for some? I can see already many complaints here😊. Are there any obese here? Really?😂

[TroubleandGrumpy]

What they are doing is measuring their average passenger weights for the calculations mandated for additional fuel to be carried. In the past airlines used an 'average weight' model that I believe was set in the 80s or 90s - and people especialy in the West are 'heavier' now.  Thai Airways will do their calculations based on the results, and they will have a lower 'average weight' than say a German or USA airline - so less reserve fuel and the costs to fly for them are lower.

Will this in the future result in additional charges for obese passengers - I certainly hope so.

[shackleton]

People these days are heavier  in weight due to modern life styles eating better foods ect 

I think there should be a weigh in to gauge the average weight for flying safety

Plus might encourage a few to have a healthier life style  lose a few kilos 

Me included  🤔

[findlay13]

Thai airways shooting themselves in the foot again.Do they actually want people to fly with them again?